Jeff Adair: It's un-American to talk about race

Monday

Feb 23, 2009 at 12:01 AMFeb 23, 2009 at 11:18 PM

This week we got a twofer: a story about race that got Rush Limbaugh and his toadies frothing at the mouth, about to blow a gasket; and a second story that got Al Sharpton, "The Rev," pumping his fist, getting ready for the battle of all battles.

Jeff Adair

This week we got a twofer: a story about race that got Rush Limbaugh and his toadies frothing at the mouth, about to blow a gasket; and a second story that got Al Sharpton, "The Rev," pumping his fist, getting ready for the battle of all battles.

The New York Post runs a cartoon that crosses the line. The satire doesn't work. Was it wrong to run? Of course. But some critics went overboard, acting like it was 1963 in Birmingham, Ala., with Bull Connor ordering police dogs on black demonstrators.

Luckily, the Post came to its senses Friday and apologized - "to some" as the headlines read - for an obviously offensive cartoon.

Here's a description for folks who didn't see it: Two cops, one with a smoking gun, stand over the bullet-riddled body of a chimpanzee. The cop without the guns says, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

Anyone with an average understanding of U.S. history knows the monkey image has been used to depict black men. Although the cartoonist denied the image represented President Obama, it's easy to understand why many readers came to this conclusion since a couple days before, police in Connecticut shot a pet chimpanzee that attacked a woman.

The cartoonist and the editor who approved it for publication messed up. I'm not sure I'd call it racist, though. The word is used too cavalierly.

But so-called civil rights activist Al Sharpton had other thoughts. He put on his boxing gloves and lead a demonstration in which protesters chanted "End racism now!' Sharpton called for the jailing of Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp, which owns the Post.

Jailing? Whoa, slow down Al. Relax. Keep things in perspective. No one was killed. This wasn't a drive-by.

The next day, new U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder gives a speech about race and four words in the 2,239 word oration get blown out of proportion. The memo is sent out to conservatives, and several national figures and small-fry wannabes across the country get up in arms.

So what did he say that startled critics, the folks who sit around waiting for the next thing to cry about?

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot," he said, "in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."

A nation of cowards. That's all some people heard. It's all some people on the right looking for the newest "extreme liberal" to beat up on, a target to rally their troops, heard.

I'm not sure I would have used the word coward. It's a little strong. But overall, I can't say he's wrong. I don't see what the big deal is.

"It's an inexcusable statement," said Rush Limbaugh.

It's "reprehensible," said the National Review Online's Jonah Goldberg.

"The first thing worth pointing out is that Holder is wrong," Goldberg said in his column Friday. "America talks about race incessantly, in classrooms, lecture halls, movies, oped pages ... just about every third PBS documentary by my count."

As I said above, folks need to chill. Read the entire speech. Dig below the surface. Clean off those foggy glasses.

Less than five minutes into Holder's speech, one would have heard truths that would be hard to dispute. He noted the interaction of races "operates within certain limitations" and how on Saturdays and Sundays "America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some 50 years ago."

Been to a church lately? Checked out some school lunchrooms, or visited many neighborhoods? There's very little integration in these places. Holder is right. You can't say he's stuck in the '50s and '60s.

The uproar over the cartoon and the reaction to Holder's comments proves the point he tried to make. One, we're scared to honestly talk about race. Second, some people, blacks included, would rather focus on the trivial than to discuss changes that must be made in all communities to correct the inequities that still exist in America.

Jeff Adair is a MetroWest (Mass.) Daily News writer and editor. He can be reached at jadair@cnc.com.

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